the biggest disconnects

“One of the biggest disconnects in martial arts training is that it is so easy to forget what you are training to do. An elegant throw is slamming a man’s head into the ground with sufficient force to shatter his shoulder or his neck. A powerful, focused punch is concussing the brain and breaking or dislocating the jaw. This is not mindfulness. To practice and to either forget or ignore what you are practicing is something close to unforgivable.” - Rory Miller, Drills: Training for Sudden Violence

Comment: Trophies, accolades, ego boosting self-soothing accouterments and baubles have become the defacto end game to the practice of martial arts. At its very essence all combative forms of discipline are about damage, damage to the attacker in the goal of stopping the threat; the threat to self, to family and to the tribe. It’s a tribal survival thing.